• Home
  1. Home
  2. Binaural beats increase interhemispheric alpha-band coherence between auditory cortices
Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Binaural beats increase interhemispheric alpha-band coherence between auditory cortices

Contributors

Solca, Marco; Mottaz, Anais; Guggisberg, Adrian

Published in

Hearing research, vol. 332, p. 233-237

Publication date

2016

Abstract

Binaural beats (BBs) are an auditory illusion occurring when two tones of slightly different frequency are presented separately to each ear. BBs have been suggested to alter physiological and cognitive processes through synchronization of the brain hemispheres. To test this, we recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) at rest and while participants listened to BBs or a monaural control condition during which both tones were presented to both ears. We calculated for each condition the interhemispheric coherence, which expressed the synchrony between neural oscillations of both hemispheres. Compared to monaural beats and resting state, BBs enhanced interhemispheric coherence between the auditory cortices. Beat frequencies in the alpha (10 Hz) and theta (4 Hz) frequency range both increased interhemispheric coherence selectively at alpha frequencies. In a second experiment, we evaluated whether this coherence increase has a behavioral aftereffect on binaural listening. No effects were observed in a dichotic digit task performed immediately after BBs presentation. Our results suggest that BBs enhance alpha-band oscillation synchrony between the auditory cortices during auditory stimulation. This effect seems to reflect binaural integration rather than entrainment.

Keywords

  • Functional connectivity
  • Alpha band
  • EEG
  • Phase synchrony
  • Dichotic digit test
  • Interhemispheric synchronization

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

SOLCA, Marco, MOTTAZ, Anais, GUGGISBERG, Adrian. Binaural beats increase interhemispheric alpha-band coherence between auditory cortices. In: Hearing research, 2016, vol. 332, p. 233–237. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2015.09.011

Main files (2)

Article (Published version)
Article (Accepted version)
CC BY-NC-ND

Identifiers

Journal ISSN

0378-5955
766views
1419downloads

Technical informations

Creation

02/06/2016 08:57:00

First validation

02/06/2016 08:57:00

Update

21/10/2024 13:00:13

Status update

15/03/2023 00:25:09

Last indexation

31/10/2024 03:34:41
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of Geneva
OpenAIRE Indexed & Validated